Conference: Next 10 Years Crucial To Ensure Provision Of Clean Water For Future Generations

Main Category: Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Also Included In: Public Health;  Conferences;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 06 Jun 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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The world needs to develop a means of securing the supply of clean fresh water within the next 10 years if we are to tackle looming water shortages, leading expert on water purification and director of the US National Science Foundation's Science and Technology Centre for Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water, Dr Mark Shannon, is expected to warn top scientists, government, industrialists, academics and business people in a speech at the 2nd Global Innovation Imperatives (Gii) conference to be held in New Delhi, India, on 19-20 June 2008.

Organised by the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) and the American Chemical Society (ACS), and co-organised by PHD Chamber, the Gii program was officially launched earlier this year in New Orleans to tackle some of the big issues affecting mankind, the first of which is water.

Never has the need for humankind to ensure the supply of clean, drinking water for future generations been greater.

Already, food shortages have led to fierce fighting and unrest in parts of the world - water shortages triggered by climate change, population growth and poor water management may be next unless tackled now.

Since 1900, the world's population has tripled and is expected to rise by another 50% within the next 50 years. India is home to one sixth of the world's population. It is estimated that two thirds of its population does not have access to proper sanitation and that 2.1million children die by the age of five due to lack of clean water.

SCI chief executive Andrew Ladds says: "Water availability, supply and quality are issues facing every one of us - the recent unprecedented move to ship clean drinking water to Barcelona to tackle the city's worst drought in decades may be a herald of things to come.

"I believe that science and innovation are the keys to finding a solution. We are increasingly part of a global community and we must call on this community to work together, sharing and exchanging ideas, research and innovation to solve this together and ensure that all of the world's population has access to clean water for all its needs."

Speakers will include the assistant vice president of Development Alternatives, Dr Vijaya Lakshmi who will be giving a talk on portable water and solutions for the removal of contamination; Dr Srikumar Banerjee from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre will discuss water desalination for agriculture application; and Dr Tapan Chakrabarti, the acting director for the National Environment Engineering Research Institute who will be presenting a talk on the scope for innovation in water quality management.

Some of the names who will be attending in support of the event are the Central Pollution Control Board; Indian Merchants' Chamber; Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics Export Promotion Council (Chemexcil) - an organisation set up by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India; Chemtech Foundation (Jasubhai Media); Indian Chemical Council; Society of Dyers & Colourist (SDC); Indian Water Works Association; Pesticides Manufacturers & Formulators Association of India (PMFAI); Chemical Weekly (media partner); and Frost & Sullivan (knowledge partner).

The Gii Global Water Solutions - Sharing Innovations conference will take place on 19-20 June 2008 at the Raunaq Room, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry , PHD House, 4/2 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi 110 016, India.

For more information, please go to http://www.thegii.org/.

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Source: Meral Nugent
Society of Chemical Industry

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